# Wineador Humidification



## SDH619 (Mar 19, 2012)

I am on the verge of putting together a wineador. I have been going through all the threads and so far it looks like everyone uses beads. My question is, why does no one use the larger Cigar Oasis or Hydra electronic humidification units? Are beads just better? Is it a cost thing? Any info would be great.


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## socalocmatt (Dec 22, 2010)

I have used the Oasis in my winador. I did so at a time when the recovery for the humidity was not so good. I dont have that issue anymore and don't open the wineador all too often so I dont use it anymore. With shelves and a good amount of beads, the Oasis doent really help all that much. It is nice as a backup or as a way to passively rehydrate the beads but thats about it IMO.


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## choinga (Aug 11, 2010)

I've got an Oasis XL and honestly, just never needed it...and I need every square inch of space in mine so it was just never practical to stick it in there for no apparent reason. I can shove beat tubes or HCM bead bags in the back of between things so they are very unobtrusive. You'll have to play with your shelves/box placement to ensure that the internal wineador fan is circulating enough air (easy way is to get 3 digital hygro's and place them top/mid/bottom to monitor temp/RH).

I looked at putting in a CPU fan at the bottom to circulate more air, but it just wasn't worth the trouble. You have to open the back, cut a hole for the power, seal it up, tap into something that gives you the right voltage and then put some kind of switch or timer on it if you don't want it to run 24/7. At the end of the day, these are cigars not newborn babies.  As long as you don't have violent swings in temp/RH they are going to be more than fine. I actually like the fact that my RH stays a bit lower on the bottom...I can keep my CC's down there that smoke better in the 60-65RH range while others smoke better at 65-68RH range.

The key is to not freak out the first week or two - it takes time to stabilize. Keep the doors closed as often as possible and get as many beads or whatever material you intend to use in there as possible. It can't hurt to have to much (within reason, of course) as you'll get faster recovery times after the door is closed. I have about 2.5lbs total of material in my 28E - a mix of 65% HF tubes and HCM bean bags which are nice because you can shove them in tight spots and they are literally zero maintenance.

Have fun!!


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## choinga (Aug 11, 2010)

For fun, here's a few pics...

1) front view - tried to get it so you could see all my hygro's - but basically, I keep the box at 64 degrees and with an ambient room temp of around 74 it keeps it right around 68-69. My RH is pretty stable from 63 to 66 bottom to top with all 65% material.










2) Here's the back of my middle shelf with the boxes out. I have another tube and HCM bag behind the other boxes as well. The trick with this setup is making sure there's enough space for the air to blow through to the front to circulate around. I make sure I don't push the boxes all the way back and they can actually sit out a little in the front and the door will close fine. However, get them too close to the front glass and you lose air circulation to the front. So, it's a balancing act....










3) Here's my bottom - you can see my shelf from Forrest has a false bottom in it so it covers the entire area so you can't actually see what's sitting below the drawer. In my case, I keep a box of Rocky Patel 50's and a bunch of beads/bags.










4) Here's one of the small HCM bags nestled in the back of a drawer. I love these things...










5) Here's another one to give some perspective to the size of these bags and a bag this size can handle a good amount of space. IIRC, the calculator on the HCM site said I only needed about 1.5lbs of beads for this box. This is an 8 ounce bag.


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## socalocmatt (Dec 22, 2010)

Nice pics of your setup. You might want to make sure that you dont get any condensation on those HCM beads being directly under the fan and under HF beads. Direct condensation or water is pretty bad for HCM.


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## choinga (Aug 11, 2010)

yeah...i watch it pretty close...I've had this setup for about 5 months now and not a drop...so far so good...


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## SDH619 (Mar 19, 2012)

All the info is great thanks. How often do you have to recharge your beads. It seems to me that by an large people like the beads. Weather or not I can get the same results from beads, is there any bad reason to use a Cigar Oasis or Hydra humidifier. Can I get the same results by using one. Not trying to be a pain. I am new to the whole wineador concept and I have so many questions running through my head. Most of them have been answered by reading the threads on builds and what not.


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## choinga (Aug 11, 2010)

After you get through that first couple weeks, not very often. I live in Texas so there's some humidity here - average around 40% or so, so that helps a little. But honestly, I've had this setup 5 months and I've spritzed my bean tubes twice. I find the combo of the HCM and Heartfelt counterbalance each other. In all honesty, I probably didn't even need to recharge them last time but I did because I was making a lot of changes and had added new boxes and thought what the hell.

Patience is a virtue with the initial setup of a wineador...it natural to want to check it every couple hours and see how it's doing but you really need a couple weeks of settling in before you want to start making drastic changes. As you can see from my build - I'm using a straight stock NewAir 28E with no modifications whatsoever. Only thing I did was plug the drain hole. Other than that, a bunch of drawers/shelves (which will soak up a lot of moisture as well and provide moisture back to the beads when they need it) and beads. As I mentioned, the real trick is placement. I thought I would have better luck with the top two spots open for boxes. Turns out - I get more event temps/RH with the middle open (as pictured) with the boxes placed just right in there so that there's enough space for the fan to blow unobstructed and enough space between the boxes on the shelf and the front glass so that the air can swirl around.

Any time you make any changes (adding/removing beads/shelves, etc...) give it at least 3-4 days to settle before making any other changes to see the effect. A couple hours ain't gonna do it. In San Diego you probably won't even need to turn the box on for half the year, or more - depending on what the temp of the room is you keep it in, of course. I haven't had mine through a Texas summer yet - so that will be interesting to see how this thing performs when the temps are at 100+ for months in a row.

Be patient with it. As I said, these are cigars not babies...they'll be OK.


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## joshbhs04 (May 30, 2011)

I am just waiting on my drawers and my build will be done. I personally went with an Avallo Accumonitor and I must say it is the easiest thing out there. I use beads in my coolerdor so I know they work well. But, the accumonitor is perfect for a wineador or bigger cabinet if you want to spend the money. Its completely handmade by order in the USA. RonC who is a member here on puff runs the company marketing them called cigarsolutions and his customer service is second to none. Once he found out I was a puff member he added some of the wicks used to run the system in as extras. Id at least check it out if I were you.


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## SDH619 (Mar 19, 2012)

joshbhs04 said:


> I am just waiting on my drawers and my build will be done. I personally went with an Avallo Accumonitor and I must say it is the easiest thing out there. I use beads in my coolerdor so I know they work well. But, the accumonitor is perfect for a wineador or bigger cabinet if you want to spend the money. Its completely handmade by order in the USA. RonC who is a member here on puff runs the company marketing them called cigarsolutions and his customer service is second to none. Once he found out I was a puff member he added some of the wicks used to run the system in as extras. Id at least check it out if I were you.


Those units look awesome. I think you have me going in a new direction.


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## joshbhs04 (May 30, 2011)

SDH619 said:


> Those units look awesome. I think you have me going in a new direction.


Im glad to give you more ideas. I got the accumonitor ez which is perfect for my newair 28. I like how it is fully customizable with the different fan options and such. i can even upgrade mine at any time if I goto a bigger setup.


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## Flapjack23 (Jan 18, 2012)

I think one of the big advantages of beads is the ability to absorb moisture and lower humidity. The oasis and other similar units only add humidity to the space. For example...a warm summer day with 90%a humidity, you open the door and your humidity goes from 64% to 79%. The beds will absorbbe moisture abda bring the humididity back down. An oasis or similar won't.


PS.sorry for the spelling, I'm posting from my phone


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## SDH619 (Mar 19, 2012)

I ordered my drawers and shelves today along with an accumonitor. I live in SoCal and humidity is not a problem where I live, for the most part its a dry heat when it is hot. I do plan on putting a bag of dry KL or beads on the top drawer to suck up any excess moister. Is this a good idea?


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## joshbhs04 (May 30, 2011)

I live in SoCal as well so the humidity spiking higher wont happen for me either. I just have the system in my wineador and it stays rock solid at 65. I love it.


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## Jbruno (Mar 23, 2012)

New to the forum, but this seems to be right in the general idea of what directed me to Puff. I am debating between the wineador and a cabinet humidor, but I really like the set up I see here. Out of curiosity's sake, what brand of wine refrigerator is that that is pictured?


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## choinga (Aug 11, 2010)

NewAir 28E. Drawers are courtesy of "Forrest" here on the forums.


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## loulax07 (Dec 17, 2011)

SDH619 said:


> I ordered my drawers and shelves today along with an accumonitor. I live in SoCal and humidity is not a problem where I live, for the most part its a dry heat when it is hot. I do plan on putting a bag of dry KL or beads on the top drawer to suck up any excess moister. Is this a good idea?


yes but i'd do that throughout the unit; bottom, middle and top. cant hurt


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## Jbruno (Mar 23, 2012)

Since I'm new here I have to ask the obvious, is Forrest a member or is that a business?


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## choinga (Aug 11, 2010)

...he's a member, but he has his own site. Custom Wineador™ Creations - Home

I can't recommend the 28E highly enough - it's cheap, looks good, controls are on the outside, was easy to get stable with about 2lbs of beads and drawers. The internal fan runs all the time so there's decent air circulation inside.

Since these are popular and Forrest already has the dimensions, he can build these for you pretty easily. If you pick up something else you may have to send him measurements and such to get drawers built.

Good luck!


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## Jbruno (Mar 23, 2012)

Sounds great, have been kickiing this around for a while. Saw the thread where people posted pics of their cooler and that got the fire going!


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## choinga (Aug 11, 2010)

...I'm less than $500 in to mine - solid investment. Like $200 for the cooler, $175 for drawers, $100 or so for humidification/hygro's...

It's a no brainer when I tally up what I've paid for the contents...boxes of Behike's, Cohiba 1966 Limitada's, etc...


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## Jbruno (Mar 23, 2012)

Thanks, I may look at ordering one this week to get going. Having just a desktop humi and only a limited variety of choices can be frustrating at times. Especially when I wasnt to buy something, but I just don't have quite enough room for a new box so I have to wait! 

Best place for beads?


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## z0diac (May 18, 2010)

SDH619 said:


> I am on the verge of putting together a wineador. I have been going through all the threads and so far it looks like everyone uses beads. My question is, why does no one use the larger Cigar Oasis or Hydra electronic humidification units? Are beads just better? Is it a cost thing? Any info would be great.


If you have a gigantic display humidor you might want one, but just having a humidifier every couple shelves is more than ample. I have 1 puck-sized gel bead humidifier in my wineador and it's been more than enough. Once the actual product IN the wineador reaches humidification, it doesn't take much just to keep the air humidified from the odd open/closing of the door on it. Think of it like a freezer: every time you open the door, your stuff doesn't thaw out. The freezer basically kicks back on after just to drop the temp of the air back down. Anyway, I'm babbling. Long answer to a short question. in short: my puck-sized humidifier has worked excellent for my wineador.

Mind you, my wineador isn't one of those huge ones.










You can see the puck humidifier on top of the stack in the middle.


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## SDH619 (Mar 19, 2012)

Just received my Edgestar 28. I have 2-3 Weeks to wait for drawers and shelves. 2 weeks for humidification. The wait might drive me nuts. At least I have plenty of time to get the plastic smell out of the fridge.


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## felker14 (Jun 20, 2013)

How is the Wineador and Avallo Accumontior combination working for you? I'm debating between Aristocrat mini or Wineador. Thanks


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## Harley3381 (Nov 4, 2008)

I was wondering the same thing Felker, from what I have searched on here it seems the wineador would be a cheaper option if you need cooling. Also a wineador is still better looking than a coolerdor.


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## Lifting and Smoking (Jul 5, 2013)

I wish I've seen this thread before I bought my HYDRA-LG Commercial Series Electronic Humidifier. The money could've been better spent on more beads.


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